Curious regarding Col. E.H. Harrison

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Vacek posted this 11 February 2014

I have a lot of old American Riflemam that I have been buying up as found, and as mentioned last month really enjoy any articles that were written by C.E. Harris.  In that light, Col. E.H. Harrison was also a great technical writer and I hope to one day find and purchase at a reasonable price his book Cast Bullets.  I believe that C.E. Harris was a major contributor as well to that book.

Anyway, just curious.  When did Col. Harrison retire?  Is there much biographical information regarding him?

Thanks,  Vacek

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Ed Harris posted this 11 February 2014

Col. E.H. Harrison was a graduate of West Point, Class of 1924, and had a doctorate in mechanical engineering. He retired from the NRA in the late 1970s.

It was my pleasure to work with him when I was there and he was a great mentor and friend. A true gentleman.

The NRA published a nice obit when he passed, but I do not remember the date.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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Vacek posted this 11 February 2014

Ed,

Thank you for that information. His writing style was very intellectual yet understandable for the lay person. I like the way the the American Rifleman wrote back in the 60's and 70's. The writing style and level of information took it for granted that their readers were intelligent. We do not currently get that.

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Ed Harris posted this 11 February 2014

After work Bob Sears and I would occasionally visit Col. Harrison at his Arlington home near Ft. Myer. His military specialties were in technical intelligence, rocketry and artillery. After WW2 he was assigned to the Port of Bremerhaven and was involved in shipment of captured German Ordnance to the US for exploitation. In particular Anzio Annie and materials from the V2 rocket program.

He was originally from Texas and early photos of him from.the 1920s he looks like a wiry version of William Holden in the Wild Bunch. He was a fine pistol shot, even in his later years.

His son, Edwin Jr. also worked in Army Ordnance at the Harry Diamond Laboratories,near Washington, and he passed away in 2012 at age 80.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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Vacek posted this 13 February 2014

If he graduated from West Point in 24 then he would have been born a little after the turn of the century; meaning he was still working (and at the top of his game) well into his 70's. 

Anyway in his research his “mechanical cards” system of data management looks very interesting.  I think one would have had to be very meticulous.  Kinda like manual key punching.  :shock:

I wonder what he would have thought of an Excel Spreadsheet.  We have all of these great tools today but I am not sure we have his discipline... at least I don't.

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Ed Harris posted this 13 February 2014

The cards were for the McBee keycard system, the patent rights later being bought by IBM and being automated, which mecame the IBM magcard system, used to program early mainframes.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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RicinYakima posted this 13 February 2014

My first computer class was on the “Cobol” IBM punch card computer that took up a whole classroom. A simple calculus formula took over 125 cards, and heaven forbid if you got one out of order. The McBee system was very logical and if you maintained good discipline, very accurate for data retrieval.

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Ed Harris posted this 13 February 2014

In my college days at VA Tech we used IBM magcards to program in FORTRAN, which at the time was preferdd for CAD/CAM applications, where as COBAL was considered more user friendly for financial applications.

About the time we got that sorted out the first Osborne potables using CPM language appeared and things rapidly went down hill from there......

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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Vacek posted this 13 February 2014

Oh yeah, I remember the Osbornes. “The Portable Computer". I met a guy with one who had paid >$5000 for a 5 meg Winchester Hard Drive for his fertilizer business to do least cost formulations. His statement was, “With 5 megabytes I will never run out of memory."

I was teaching Ag Sciences at a Junior College and CPM was the language we used. Wasn't it more or less the precurser to MS-DOS?. We could open our Apple II up and put in a CPM card and rock n roll.

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TRKakaCatWhisperer posted this 13 February 2014

I still have my first CAD drawing - and all the punch cards! CPM - my first was a Kaypro - TWO 160k floppy disk drives, Z80. Where I taught we had a computer powered by a 6205 or 6705? It would do both multi-tasking and addressing - had a 10meg HDD too!  It ran a dozen or so terminals.  

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TRKakaCatWhisperer posted this 13 February 2014

Ed Harris wrote: In my college days at VA Tech we used IBM magcards to program in FORTRAN, which at the time was preferdd for CAD/CAM applications, where as COBAL was considered more user friendly for financial applications.

About the time we got that sorted out the first Osborne potables using CPM language appeared and things rapidly went down hill from there......
Yup - FORmula TRANslation and COmputer aided Business Language or close to it. Zlog produced the 8080 then the Z80 and some of them left joining/forming Intel and they took off with the 80186 80286 80386 80486 and then the Pentium. Z80's are now predominantly in PLC controllers. Wonderful to have experienced this transition - and to remember brining in hay with my step-dad behind two horses pulling the wagon.

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Duane Trusty posted this 13 February 2014

Hey

You guys take me back to the “Good Old Days” yah right.

My grandson asked me about my the first computer that I used in college, told him it was coal fired.

By the way, I never had to reboot my slide rule.

Isn't Harrison's works available on disk?

Duane

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Vacek posted this 13 February 2014

If it is available I would like to purchase it...... not the Kaypro....Harrison's work on a disc.B)

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NuJudge posted this 09 March 2014

Harry Diamond Labs . . . I got to deer hunt that land several times. Wow did they have a lot of deer there.

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Elmer posted this 18 January 2021

Howdy, Ed.

Thanks for the information on Col. Harrison. I thoroughly enjoyed his expertise and writing. Still have some old NRA books with his articles.

Btw, my uncle Stan was a Gobbler football standout in the early 1940's, I believe. After he was drafted he developed testicular cancer and died from radiation treatments at Brooke Army Medical Hospital at Ft Sam Houston, 1947. As told to me by my Father, a WW2 flyer, B-26.

Since I have you captive, would you have any "cat sneeze" loads for .22 Hornet? I've a nice little H&R Handi-Gun II, that I'd like to use as a Rook rifle.

Sincerely,

Jack M Altoona PA

JSM

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Larry Gibson posted this 18 January 2021

"Since I have you captive, would you have any "cat sneeze" loads for .22 Hornet? I've a nice little H&R Handi-Gun II, that I'd like to use as a Rook rifle."

 

Not Ed but I have a couple real good subsonic loads I use in both my 10" Contender and my 22 Hornet rifles (over the years in a Contender 21" barrel, Ruger #3, several Savage 23s and a couple others).  

Lyman 225248, GC'd, lubed with 50/50 or 2500+, sized .225 loaded over 1.8 gr Bullseye in W-W cases with WSP primers.  Runs right at 1100 fps.

Lyman 225415, GC'd, lubed with 50/50 or 2500+, sized .225 loaded over the same 1.8 gr Bullseye in W-W cases with WSP primers.  Runs right at 1050 fps.

I cast them soft with COWWs +2% tin mixed 50/50 with lead or with 20-1 alloy.  

Accuracy is excellent and the 225415 thumps ground squirrels as hard as does any 22LT HV HP.  With the suppressor they are quieter tan my pellet rifles.  

Concealment is not cover.........

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alphabrass posted this 18 January 2021

Fortran IV, CDC Cyber 170, IBM 026/029 kepunch machines, vacuum operated card reader, turnaround time for printed output - just to see the dreaded FE (fatal error) message.  HP 25 calculator, programable with 49 steps.  Fun to remember and puts today's technology in perspective.

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ALYMAN#1 posted this 18 January 2021

Like Ed I had to make a card program to do the ME experiment calculations at VT -  took quite a while to get it right and run the program for results.  Lots of fun ??  Finally got out!

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Ed Harris posted this 19 January 2021

When I was at Ruger state of the art was a 2-suiter sized IBM "luggable" used to program 8-inch Wang disks used in the Boston Digital and North American Rockwell machining centers, being replaced by Hitachi-Seiki in the late 19 80s when I left.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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Wineman posted this 19 January 2021

Everything prior to 1975 including the Saturn V and the Moon landing was handled with slide rules and three significant digits. Battleships, skyscrapers, trans ocean flights, V2 missiles, jet engines, bridges, Detroit V8's, the list goes on. Computers made the data retrieval and storage easier. The math is the same, now it is a machine that does the heavy lifting and not your brain. Games, Porn and ideas that make you want to agree with is what computers have brought to us. Don't get me wrong, I use one every day (right now) but dang I really miss writing those heart felt letters and cards and the brain needs some work to do. Hey what about the chronometer and the sextant? Just rambling.

Dave

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Bud Hyett posted this 19 January 2021

Let's not forget logarithms, the easy way to multiply big numbers by addition or divide by subtraction. One more significant figure than a slide rule if you interpolated correctly.

My college had a professor who each summer sought and received another doctorate. He wrote programs for the challenge and was a good source for physical chemistry card packs to run backing up our senior experiments. Great resource, his programs ran the first time every time.

One student miswrote a card set and shut down the core processing unit of an IBM 360 servicing five colleges in Western Illinois and Eastern Iowa. 

Farm boy from Illinois, living in the magical Pacific Northwest

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Elmer posted this 20 January 2021

Larry,

Sweet setup. Thank you for the information. Is your twist 1:14 inches? I've not measured mine, but presumably it's 1:16. The Handi Gun II is not particularly accurate but is loads of fun and quite "handy."

Jack

JSM

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Elmer posted this 20 January 2021

Dave,

If you want a good read on how powerful a slide rule is, pick up a copy of Yeager! The general tells how he needed to depart a short field in a Century Series (sic) fighter. His flt eng, Jack Ridley did the takeoff calculation and put his jacket on the side of the runway. He told Yeager to punch the burner when he got to the jacket, and he would have 10 feet to spare. It worked, and Yeager trusted him implicitly after that. (From memory). Pure genius.

Did anyone here know Jack Ridley?

I used to be adequate with a slide rule. It might be time to get reacquainted.

Best wishes, Jack

JSM

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RicinYakima posted this 20 January 2021

In the movie, "The right stuff", he is the guy giving Yeager Beeman's chewing gum.

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Larry Gibson posted this 20 January 2021

Larry, Sweet setup. Thank you for the information. Is your twist 1:14 inches? I've not measured mine, but presumably it's 1:16. The Handi Gun II is not particularly accurate but is loads of fun and quite "handy." Jack

Both the 21" and 10" Contenders have a 12" twist.  Older ones may have 14" twists as per older Lyman Manuals.  Those loads also shoot very well in my 14" twist Savage M40.  The 225428 bullet also did very well in my 16" twist #3 and the older Savage M23s.  The 225415 load did ok to 50 yards+ but lost stability/accuracy around 75 yards.

LMG 

Concealment is not cover.........

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beltfed posted this 20 January 2021

Slide rule and then punchcards for the Remington 1107 Univac at Case Tech circa 1960

beltfed/arnie

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joeb33050 posted this 20 January 2021

Everything prior to 1975 including the Saturn V and the Moon landing was handled with slide rules and three significant digits. Battleships, skyscrapers, trans ocean flights, V2 missiles, jet engines, bridges, Detroit V8's, the list goes on. Computers made the data retrieval and storage easier. The math is the same, now it is a machine that does the heavy lifting and not your brain. Games, Porn and ideas that make you want to agree with is what computers have brought to us. Don't get me wrong, I use one every day (right now) but dang I really miss writing those heart felt letters and cards and the brain needs some work to do. Hey what about the chronometer and the sextant? Just rambling.

Dave

 

You forget the DEC computers such as the PDP 8, lotsa them sold to manufacturing companies.

I bought printed circuit board drills, insertion machines and sequencers in 1969, all N/C; programmed on Friden Flexowriters on 8 channel EIA tape- computers were GE. 

Before that, ~1965, programmed machine tools on a Borroughs  ?E101B?

Days of interpolating the circle. 

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Wineman posted this 21 January 2021

Joe,

Good call. Of course there were computers since the 1940's but many great things that needed calculation used the humble slide rule and the human brain prior to the mass use of computers. I'm sure that there was always some "extra" put in where as today, gnats whiskers are the dimensions that a computer can calculate. Burroughs and VAX mainframes were the standard college computer when I was an undergrad. A few DEC CMP machines and eventually IBM PC's started getting on desks in the 1980's.

Dave

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John Alexander posted this 21 January 2021

The reason the slide served so long and so well is because with a few exceptions, we only know the magnitude of most things to 2 significant figures. Strength of any material used used in designs, almost all loads that the things we designed will have tho handle,  etc.  -- all known to only two figures if you are lucky.  So you can carry out your calculations to three figures with a slide rule or ten if you like with a computer but the physical world won't care and your design won't be any closer to right.  There are exceptions of course that's why there were the hated log tables.

John

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RicinYakima posted this 21 January 2021

Materials I worked with varied more the two places from lot to lot.

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ALYMAN#1 posted this 22 January 2021

I pulled out my slide rule recently and found it was trashed from foolishly leaving it in the leather case - the frames for the lenses were rusted to pieces.

FWIW

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Elmer posted this 23 January 2021

Hi, Larry.

Thank you for your response.

I dug out a Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, 3rd Ed, 1980 (presumed lost in the move) that has several reduced loads for .22 Hornet that give velocities slightly higher than your Bullseye loads.

In a Win M54, 24" bbl, 1-16", 0.223 groove dia, Lyman used #225438, wt. 41 gr and RD, 2.0 gr @ 1095 fps to Unique, 3.0 gr @ 1365 fps.

I don't want to get into casting again, so I'll find cast bullets online. I've got online BO's for additional reloading presses to speed up the process since I'm a single stage guy. I plan to use the Lee hand tool to spend a pleasant afternoon working up reduced loads for accuracy, starting with yours.

Best wishes,

Jack from PA

I'm sure you know this, but I wanted to post it for the other members. The older I get, the more cautious I get when tinkering with very reduced loads, thinking of the Bullseye accidents over the years.

JSM

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Elmer posted this 25 January 2021

Thank you, Larry, for the data. Please excuse the delay. I thought I had replied.

JSM

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